Making a Facebook Page

Well… a few days ago, after deliberating on it back and forth for a VERY long time, I finally decided to take the plunge and make a public Facebook page for myself. 😀

http://www.facebook.com/timoliver.au

I’d been basically avoiding doing this for several years since I really couldn’t think of a reason of why it wouldn’t be the apex of gratuitous self-wankery (especially back in the ye olde days when they were called ‘fan pages’). XD But given some recent stuff I inadvertently did on my private Facebook, and after asking a few buddies, it finally seemed like it might be a good idea.

Basically, when it comes to maintaining a personal brand on the internet, I don’t really consider private Facebook accounts to be a part of that. I treat mine mainly as a place where I can casually converse with my day-to-day mates, keep in touch with new/old colleagues, and (most importantly), keep track of events happening in my neck of the woods.

A week or so back, hoping to get some more feedback on my iComics icon, I started posting iterations of it on my Facebook account. Well… although a lot of my friends very kindly offered their opinions (And we totally nutted out an AWESOME icon! 😀 ), I couldn’t help but feel I was spamming my account with things that the majority of people I’m friends with on Facebook PROBABLY didn’t care too much about. The breaking point was when I looked at the front face of my account and it was NOTHING but iComics posts. ^_^;

And on that same note, I got to thinking. Since my personal Facebook account is private, there’s probably not too much point posting updates about my public activities in there. The exposure is quite limited, and I can probably bet a lot of my friends don’t want to see that stuff in there. ^_^;

So, here we go with a completely open, public Facebook page. The goal of this page will be able to post all of the same news and announcements that I do on my Twitter regarding the crazy stuff I do like my blogs and iOS apps, as well as provide a public space where anyone can come along and ask questions/get support (Still getting iPokédex support requests here. ^_^;). And if any of my existing Facebook buddies were enjoying those updates, then they then have the choice of opting-in. I guess if you think of it like that, I’m treating this thing like a Twitter account for people who don’t use Twitter. XD

Aside from that, I’ve discovered there are a few additional benefits to having a Facebook page. Firstly, it makes more sense to put one of these on my business card than my private one. Secondly, making it completely separate from my Facebook account means I can control the SEO a bit. In this case, since my private account is ‘Timothy Oliver’, a basic Google search for ‘Tim Oliver’ (Which is what I usually go by) never actually reveals that one.

Anyway, I hope that made sense. And given how many blogs I’ve read stating how personal Facebook pages are bad, I hope that justified my decision to go ahead with this. 🙂

Alrighty. With that all send and done now, go over and like my page! ;D